Category: MLB General

mlb-general

Categories
MLB General

2 years and 9 months in jail for what?


Troy Ellerman, the attorney who leaked grand jury testimony in the BALCO case has agreed to the maximum sentence of 2 years and 9 months in jail. While this is 9 months longer than his plea bargain, prosecutors did reduce his fine from $250,000 to $60,000. Ellerman had also previously gave up his California law license. Ellerman pleaded guilty to allowing Mark Fainaru-Wada to see confidential transcripts.

So the question is, what exactly did Ellerman get out of this? He was a successful attorney when he was hired to defend Victor Conte and now his life is basically ruined. Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams got a book, an SI cover story, and national exposure out of it. Ellerman gets almost 3 years in federal pound-me-in-the-ass prison. We guess we shouldn’t feel too sorry for a guy who couldn’t keep his mouth shut and his photocopier off but Mark Fainaru-Wada should be visiting him every week in prison and slipping him some money.

Links:

[AP]: BALCO leak agrees to maximum sentence

Categories
MLB General

The Full Count: Chris Young makes his case

There is a possibility that there will be NO SOUP FOR YOU!! Every year there is that one All-Star snub that just baffles everyone. This year’s candidate has to be Padres pitcher Chris Young. Young will probably make the NL team, one way or the other. He can be voted in in the final online voting, which ends at 6 p.m. Eastern today, or he could replace an injured player, such as John Smoltz of the Braves. However, in last nights game against the Marlins, Young made the proverbial statement that he should’ve already freakin’ been there, LaRussa, with another stellar outing. Young went seven innings, allowing no runs while striking out nine. Like the proverbial broken record, he got a no decision for his effort. It was the seventh time Young has carried a shutout into the seventh inning this season, and the fourth in which he got no decision. In 17 starts, Young has allowed only 23 earned runs. Not to get all editorial after your July 4 hangover, but if the game is going to count as far as awarding home field advantage in the World Series, then managers Tony LaRussa and Jim Leyland should be able to pick the best team available, and not be hamstrung by the every-team-must-be-represented rule.

Old Man River does it againThe Tigers snapped the Indians six-game winning streak 6-4, with the help of Kenny Rogers. Rogers won his third straight start since coming of the DL and kept the Tigers two games behind Cleveland in the Central and 1.5 games ahead of the Mariners for the Wild Card. Carlos Guillen led the offense by going 3 for 4 with a run-scoring triple. It was Rogers’ sixth straight win going back to last year’s postseason, and he has allowed only four earned runs this year.

I love New York, it’s the rest of the league that’s the problem. The Colorado Rockies became the first team since 1956 to sweep two New York teams in the same season. The Rock gave the Mets an old fashioned Coors enema, pounding out 20 hits and 17 runs and forcing Mets pitchers to throw 233 pitches (including 107 in 4 innings by El Duque Hernandez). The Rockies swept the Yankees three weeks ago, and outscored the Gothams 47-17 overall. Unfortunatley, they have no more games left against New York teams. Bye bye wild card hopes.

Player of the Day: Garrett Atkins, Rockies. 4 for 5, HR, 5 RBI and 2 runs scored in a 17-7 win over the Mets.

Categories
MLB General

The Full Count: Barry inching closer


The crawl to Aaron continues: Barry Bonds hit no. 751 on Tuesday against the Reds, a first inning blast off Aaron Harang into the right-centerfield seats. The Giants lost the game 7-3, and Bonds made sure to backhand his teammates by saying, “I’m playing pretty good for an old guy. I just wish we were playing better as a team.” That’s our Barry, always making nice. What made this game interesting was that it was the first time in over 30 years in which two players with that many homeruns played in the same game. Bonds (751) and Ken Griffey Jr’s (585) 1,336 homers are the third-most all-time between two players in the same game.

The players might have liked you, but I think you suck. We believe those were the words Rockies’ manager Clint Hurdle used when taking the closer’s job away from Brian Fuentes. Fuentes had already sewn up his third straight selection to the NL All-Star team before blowing four consecutive save opportunities, the first time anyone has done that in almost 20 years. Fuentes was one of the best closers in the league before melting in games against the Blue Jays, Cubs and Astros, with his ERA jumping from 1.89 to 4.17. He probably won’t lose the job permanantely, but Hurdle now plans on using the dreaded “bullpen by committee” approach.

Rookie what we have here Although his name may sound more like a NASCAR driver than a baseball player, Houston rookie Hunter Pence has been tearing it up for the Astros. Pence has been doing it all for Houston, including hitting a walk-off homerun for a 5-4 victory over the Phillies last night. It was the third time during their homestand that an Astro has sent ’em home happy with a game-winning homer. Since being called up on April 28th, the Fort Worth, TX product has hit 10 homeruns with 39 RBI while leading the Astros with a .345 batting average. He’s even outslugging Carlos Lee .590 to .517. He’s also playing a remarkable centerfield, as evidenced by his ridiculous catch off a Ryan Howard shot in the eigth inning. Pence climbed that stupid Tal’s Hill and caught the ball right next to the waiting-to-kill-somebody flagpole, 436 feet from home.

Player of the day: Brad Wilkerson, Rangers. 3-4, 3 HR, 6 RBI in an 8-3 win over the Angels.

Honorable Mention Player(s) of the day: The Kansas City Royals entire starting lineup. The Royals are a team that has never gotten a lot of respect offensively, but when they beat a team, they beat them like they stole something. For the third time in a month, the Royals put a 17 spot on the board –all in home games– by pounding the Mariners 17-3. 21-year-old Billy Butler led the way, driving in six runs by the second inning. The Royals beat the Phillies 17-5 on June 10th and the Cardinals 17-8 on June 14th. They also lost a 17-3 game to Oakland at home on May 10th.

Categories
MLB General

The Full Count: Clemens notches win #350


It’s still not as awesome as the Mile High Club, but Roger Clemens joined some exclusive company Monday night by notching career victory no. 350 as the Yankees beat the Twins 5-1. Clemens was his old dominant self, going eight innings, giving up two hits while walking none. He joined Warren Spahn as the only pitcher in the live ball era to win at least 350 games. Clemens now stands at eighth all-time in victories. If he can get 14 more, he can pass Spahn’s for fifth place. Perhaps unrealistiically, he can try to catch Grover Cleveland Alexander and Christy Mathewson for third place at 373 wins. Or, he can finally admit what we’ve been suspecting for years…that he’s replaced all of his muscles with cyborg parts and he plans on winning 512 games to surpass Cy Young as the all-time leader.

Let’s register firejohncclaren.com right now, because he now has a winning percentage of .000. John McClaren made his surprise managerial debut for the Seattle Mariners last night in Kansas City, as their eight-game winning streak came to an end against the Royals. McClaren, who was the bench coach as of Sunday, replaced possible AL manager of the year candidate Mike Hargrove, who suddenly resigned, citing a lost passion for the game. Despite a great outing from Felix Hernandez, the Mariners were only able to scratch out two runs and lost the game in the 11th on an anti-climatic sacrifice fly.

HEY! In case you haven’t noticed, the Indians have managed to win a few here and there, and are now threatening to lap the Detroit Tigers for first place in the AL Central. The Indians completed a four-game sweep of the perpetually lowly Devil Rays at Jacobs Field over the weekend and are playing great baseball just in time for a pre All Star Break Showdown in Mowtown (has anyone used that slogan before? If not, we call dibs). Surprising youngster Fausto Carmona had a great outing, striking out eight in six innings to pick up his ninth win of the season. Grady Sizemore hit his second career grand slam in the laugher. The Tribe currently leads the Tigers by two games.

Player of the day: Damian Miller, Brewers. Having not played since hitting a walk-off homer last Wednesday, Miller picked up where he left off by going 4-5 with two HR (including a grand slam) and 7 RBI’s against the Pirates. Hey (manager) Ned Yost, you might not want to start this guy just once every five days.

Categories
MLB General

The Full Count: A night of nice round numbers


1. Milestone Number 1: After the 2004 and 2005 seasons, in which he only played 108 combined games, it seemed like Frank Thomas would never stay healthy enough to reach 500 homers. But after a 39 homer season last year, and 13 more blasts this season, Thomas has joined the legendary 500 homer club. He is its 21st member, though he will be joined soon by Alex Rodriguez, who needs eight more. Jim Thome, Manny Ramirez, and Gary Sheffield are not far off as well. Many people think the 500 homer mark is diminished because of the large amount of members joining in recent years and steroid suspicions of these players. However, Thomas is one of those players that has always seemed clean, and the large majority of his homers were hit before the steroid era. This achievement just puts Thomas over the edge when it comes to making the Hall of Fame. Now, he’s likely a first-ballot type candidate. Oh by the way, Thomas’ Blue Jays lost to the Twins, 8-5.

2. Milestone Number 2: Amazingly, only hours after Thomas’ 500th homer, Craig Biggio reached the 3000-hit mark. He is the 27th player to reach that mark, though it is arguably more special than 500 homeruns the longevity and consistency it takes to reach. Biggio’s hit was his third of five hits on Wednesday in Houston’s extra-inning win over Colorado. It’s unfortunate that Biggio’s biggest career achievement comes in what is likely his worst season. Even after going 5-6, he still is hitting just .250 on the year with an awful .293 on-base percentage. This is Biggio’s 20th season, and it will probably become his 19th straight with more than 100 hits. He has also had all 3,002 of his hits with the Astros, making him the ninth player in history with 3,000 hits with one team. Whether he makes the Hall of Fame or not, Biggio’s career has been quite distinguished, especially for a second baseman.

3. Rogers Rules: A loaded team like Detroit doesn’t need any extra help, but that’s exactly what they’ve received thanks to the return of Kenny Rogers. After six shutout innings against the Braves in his season debut, Rogers improved to 2-0 with one run allowed in six more innings against the Rangers. The run allowed did bring an end to his under-publicized scoreless innings streak, however. Last year Rogers didn’t allow a run in 23 postseason innings, and he started this year with 11 straight shutout innings. With a 5-2 victory, the Tigers managed to avoid a sweep at the hands of the last-place Rangers. Gary Sheffield hit his 18th homer of the year as well for Detroit.

Player of the Day: Chase Utley, Phillies: 3-5, 2 HRs (15), 4 RBIs in an 8-7 win over the Reds.

Categories
MLB General

June 22 2007 MLB Power Rankings Roundup

It’s all about the Angels as Casey Kotchman leads them into the top spot in 3 out of the 6 sites we poll. If they can put together some wins in the next week, they will might sway the vote and take over first place by themselves. The Yankees also made some moves in a few polls but after being swept by the Rockies, expect them to fall a little next week.

Here are your MLB Power Rankings for this week:

Rank Sportscolumn ESPN FoxSports Sportsline USA Today TSN.ca
1 Angels Angels Red Sox Angels Red Sox Red Sox
2 Red Sox Padres Angels Red Sox Angels Angels
3 Indians Red Sox Padres Tigers Indians Padres
4 Tigers Tigers Indians Indians Padres Mets
5 Padres Indians Tigers Yankees Tigers Yankees
6 D’backs A’s A’s A’s Mets Tigers
7 Dodgers Dodgers Mets Padres Dodgers Dodgers
8 Mets Mariners Yankees Brewers D’backs Indians
9 A’s Mets Dodgers Dodgers A’s A’s
10 Braves Yankees D’backs D’backs Yankees Braves
11-30 more more more more more more

Categories
MLB General

MLB Cost Index for June 18 2007

The MLB Cost Index is one measure of how well your GM did over the course of the offseason and during the season. The Index takes a look at the payrolls for each team and calculates a Cost per Win number. Pretty simple stuff right? But in the wide open world of baseball with no salary cap, it’s the best way we can think of to judge teams on a level (monetary) playing field.

Who are the biggest bargains in baseball? Well, from the Cost Index, you would have to point to the Diamondbacks, Padres, and Indians. All three teams are in the ten lowest payrolls in the majors while being either on top of their division or only one game out. The Brewers are also a pretty good bargain with a $72M payroll and leading the NL Central by 6.5 games over the Cubs and their $100M payroll.

The complete MLB Cost Index after the jump.

Continue reading “MLB Cost Index for June 18 2007”

Categories
MLB General

June 14 2007 MLB Power Rankings Roundup

Here’s a completely biased question: Why aren’t the Phillies getting more love from the writers of the Power Rankings? The A’s, the Mariners and the Diamondbacks are getting plenty of love. Why not the Phils? Just asking.

Rank Sportscolumn ESPN FoxSports Sportsline USA Today TSN.ca
1 Angels Angels Red Sox Red Sox Red Sox Red Sox
2 Red Sox Padres Angels Angels Angels Padres
3 Indians Red Sox Indians Tigers Indians Mets
4 Tigers Tigers Mets Indians Mets Angels
5 Padres Indians Padres Mariners Padres D’backs
6 Dodgers A’s Tigers A’s Tigers Braves
7 D’backs Dodgers D’backs Padres Dodgers Tigers
8 Mets Mariners Mariners Dodgers D’backs Mariners
9 Mariners Mets A’s D’backs A’s A’s
10 A’s Yankees Dodgers Phillies Braves Indians
11-30 more more more more more more

Categories
MLB General

The Full Count: Yankees are creeping up


1. Make it 9: The Yankees extended the longest winning streak in the majors to 9 games after sweeping the Diamondbacks. They won 7-1 on Thursday thanks mainly to Andy Pettitte’s eight-inning, one-run start. Pettitte has quietly posted a 2.93 ERA this season, the best mark on the Yankees’ staff. The Yankees’ offense and pitching are on a roll as they’ve outscored their opponents 67-24 during the streak. Alex Rodriguez drove in two runs to give him 21 RBIs in his last nine games. Hideki Matsui’s three RBIs give him 12 during the nine-game win streak. The Yankees took advantage of another loss by the Red Sox to move within 7.5 games. They will face the Mets, who are on a five-game losing streak, over the weekend.

2. Start Wasted: Tim Hudson outdeuled Johan Santana, but the Braves wasted his efforts with a meltdown by the bullpen. Hudson pitched seven scoreless innings, allowing just two hits and one walk. Santana went seven strong as well and struck out nine, but he allowed two runs. The pitcher’s duel didn’t decide the game though, as Bob Wickman gave up three runs in the ninth inning to lose the game for Atlanta. The 3-2 win completed a sweep for the Twins, who have won four in a row and are just 5.5 back of the Indians. The Braves moved behind the Phillies for the first time all season, albeit by just a half game. The road won’t get any easier for the Braves, as they travel to Cleveland, who has the second-best home record in the majors.

3. How `bout that Royals offense!: In a bizarre occurrence, the Royals of all teams have scored 17 runs in two of their last four games. After beating the Phillies 17-5 last Sunday, they topped the Cardinals 17-8 on Thursday. Mark Teahen had five RBIs and leads the team with 35 on the year, and Alex Gordon homered as the Royals destroyed St. Louis. They scored 8 runs in the second inning, then 6 runs in the fourth. What a powerhouse! The Cardinals’ Kip Wells had six earned runs in one-plus inning and extended his major league lead in losses to 11. Now the Royals rank 22nd in runs scored, leaving their usual last place in that category. Now the White Sox can be considered the league’s worst offense.

Player of the Day: Justin Germano, Padres: 6 innings, no runs, in a 7-1 win over Tampa. The nearly unknown Germano is 5-0 with a 2.36 ERA on the year.

Categories
MLB General

The Full Count: It’s all about the pitching


1. 10 wins for Lackey: John Lackey became the majors’ first 10-game winner after another solid start on Wednesday. As the Angels beat the Reds 6-3, Lackey went six innings and allowed just one earned run. He improved to 10-4 on the season with a 2.53 ERA, making him one of the leading candidates to start for the AL in the All Star game. The Angels won their 41st game of the year, tied with the Red Sox for most wins in the majors. Vlad Guerrero broke out of a mini-slump with a 3-5, 4-RBI performance. The Angels will play at Dodger Stadium this weekend in what will be an intriguing showdown between division leaders.

2. West Coast Aces: The Dodgers and Padres are tied for the NL West division lead, and both are helped tremendously by their aces. The Dodgers’ Brad Penny and the Padres’ Jake Peavy have turned into two of the most dominant pitchers in baseball. Both are 8-1 after winning again on Wednesday. Penny allowed one run in seven innings as the Dodgers completed a sweep of the Mets with a 9-1 victory. His 2.18 ERA ranks second in the NL only to Peavy, who has a 1.82 mark. Peavy pitched seven scoreless innings against the Devil Rays and struck out 8. He is now one strikeout behind Cole Hamels for the major league lead. The Padres crushed the D-Rays 9-0, as Tampa starter Edwin Jackson fell to 0-8 with an 8.20 ERA. Jackson is now on pace for an 0-20 record this season.

3. Aces for the Day: Some pitchers that usually aren’t that good pitched very well on Wednesday. Carlos Silva entered a game against the Braves 3-7 with a 4.40 ERA, but he pitched a complete-game shutout. Adam Wainwright of the Cardinals one-hit the Royals in eight innings, lowering his ERA by 0.52. Ian Snell of the Pirates pitched a complete game against the Rangers, allowing just one unearned run. Snell is having a breakout season with a 2.63 ERA and 1.14 WHIP.

Player of the Day: Carlos Silva, Twins: CG, no walks, no runs in a 6-0 win over the Bra